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Wednesday, January 15, 2014

Handful of taiwanese music

I wrote on Twitter once that I happened to create an account on Spotify out of boredom. This way, I got access to millions of songs and albums absolutely for free. I'm abusing Vivaldi and whole Decca, yes, that's true, but in my ventures to world playlists, I discovered few other artists I could discover months later.

There is something nice in the ability to listen to Top 100 from Peru or Taiwan.

Speaking of the latter...

Tián Fūzhēn, callsign: Hebe. I know, she's a member of S.H.E. but her new solo album (released in 2013) is really nice to listen to, with dominant violin lines. Except for the first, title song "Insignificance" (渺小) which is slightly weird in terms of tempo and rhythm, the rest is something between pop, acoustic and soulful waving. She may not have the greatest vocal scale and she knows it, this is why she doesn't try anything weird, doesn't strain her voice to sound throaty and deep, but having an effect of pooping instead. Her voice sounds pleasant enought to make those 10 songs from her album a nice listening.

Plus, the MV is really beautiful, having similar colors to Madonna's "Frozen", yet being cold, not suffocating.

And yes, what Hebe recites at the end is a poem by Polish poetess, Wisława Szymborska (Nobel in 1996). The title of the poem is "Under One Small Star" (Pod jedną gwiazdką). And you can read the English translation here.

David Tao - 勿忘我
Just wait for the chorus. That was not what I expected.

I liked his whole "Hello Goodbye" album actually. It's a nice mixture of ballads and soul with real instruments.

I introduced JiaJia last time, and this time, MV that is one week old, that is truly 2014 music.

It's an acoustic song, only guitar and her voice. MV has baking and a kitty. And a whole lotta solitude à la Rilke.

One of the funniest songs and MVs I have encountered lately. Everybody, I give you Chet Lam - "Thank You".

Anthony Neely, ladies and gents has a new album, "Friends". I admit, I haven't listened to it yet (I'm on my way to), so all I can say is this - the song below has its moments, although to judge it, I have to put it in the context of the whole album. I like it because I like Neely's voice, but there is some rift in it that makes me wanting to bash skulls. This or I need to go for a stroll.